The schedule is set, the sponsors are happy and the after party has been reserved.

Now it’s time to get everyone involved. Below, you’ll notice three four things: 1) the boilerplate copy that you can copy and paste to your blog, your Facebook page or wherever else you live online; 2) a Word copy of the official press release; 3) a PDF copy of the same release; 4) a text copy for you to give to your non-press friends. Please distribute any or all of these to greater downtown Phoenix residents and business owners that you think might benefit from CenPhoCamp.

Boilerplate copy (just copy and paste, yo)
CenPhoCamp exists to teach greater downtown Phoenix businesses how to thrive in the new economy. From Kirk Yuhnke of ABC15 to Jose Gonzalez and Bill Binder of Torch Theater and Kevin Spidel of Gannett Local to Jonathan Kressaty of RipStyles and Betwext, we’ve gathered practitioners, not disassociated experts, together for an afternoon or learning and collaboration.

The event is free to anyone.

Please register at http://www.cenphocamp.com/register/

CenPhoCamp will be held at the Cronkite School at the downtown Phoenix ASU campus.

555 N Central Ave
Phoenix, AZ 85004

October 9, 2010
1–4:30pm (conference at Cronkite)
5–7:30pm (hosted appetizers at the District)

Downloadable press releases
Word press release (right click)

PDF press release (right click)

Downloadable friend invite
Text friend invite

Sponsorships are the backbone of what make this event possible. Without them, we couldn’t rent out Cronkite, afford the tapes, name tags and other supplies and most importantly, wouldn’t have grub to snack on at the after party. If you or your business would like to help us out, we have sponsorship packages available for very cheap.

Session Sponsorship ($25 — 12 available)
These are are the individual sessions. Sponsorships include a 15–30 ad read at the beginning of the presentation, the business’s logo on the presenter slides and the business name and logo on the video of the presentation posted online post event. We have about six left.

Room Sponsorship ($50 — 3 available)
Each sponsor gets to decorate their room how they see fit. There are a few restrictions handed down from Cronkite (can’t affix anything to the walls, for example) but we’re happy to work with you to get the most out of it. You also get your logo and a writeup in a specific post on the blog, as well as thanked by your organizers in the beginning. These are sold out.

After-Party Sponsorship (~$100 — 2 available)
These businesses buy us appetizers at our venue of choice after the event. They are included in the previous writeup and we will work with the after-party venue to get signage up if they so desire. They are considered our title sponsors and will get preferential placement on blogs and will be included in the RSS footer of every post. We’ll also thank them in the opening act.

Session sponsors do have a say in what sessions they sponsor, but their choices aren’t final. Every effort is made to ensure the sponsors and the session material coincide with each other or that they don’t conflict horribly (like an alcohol company couldn’t sponsor a college presenter, not that we have any alcohol companies as sponsors, but you know what I mean).

As of Labor Day Weekend, session sponsorships and one after-party sponsorship is still available.

CenPhoCamp wouldn’t have been possible without the gracious support of the community. Every speaker, panelist and sponsor have offered their time and/or money to allow us to rent the Cronkite school and provide some food and drinks for attendees afterwards.

The following four companies are sponsoring each of the four rooms we will be using. Tony’s Light Rail Blogger will be in room 252, Kimber’s Verve Co will be taking over room 202, Derek Neighbor’s Integrum will set up in room 444 and Jane’s Practical Art will set up in room 314.

Thanks to all of you for making this happen and good luck.

Light Rail Blogger
Tony Arranaga blogs about the lightrail in Phoenix — and uses social media to help spread the word about his experience using alternative transportation. Tony uses social media to not only promote his blog but also to start a conversation and get people thinking about riding their bike, sharing a ride, or using the light rail/bus to get around the Valley. Exactly how he starts this conversation is what he’ll focus on during his presentation at CenPho Camp.

Verve Co
Verve is a full-service Internet solution provider. We have provided a wide breadth of design, software and marketing solutions for a variety of businesses all around the globe. Our skill set covers a full-spectrum of key relevant Internet disciplines that allow us to create powerful solutions targeting measurable results. We understand both the technical and marketing aspects of the Internet and are able to fuse the two together to create truly effective solutions for businesses just like yours.

Integrum
Integrum emphasizes business value, speed to market and open communication to build remarkable Ruby on Rails web applications. Integrum has worked with organizations of all sizes, from startups to the enterprise. They utilize Agile software development methodologies and powerful tools to deliver your project on time, and on budget.

Practical Art
At practical art, everything is handmade by more than 70 different local Arizona artisans. In their large storefront on Central Avenue, north of Camelback, they carry over 2,000 functional, usable wares in glass, ceramic, metal, wood, fibers, and more. Expect to find things like wood bowls and utensils made from local fallen trees; glassware and ceramic items in any useful shape you can imagine; scarves, blankets and other knit or woven fibers; classically handcrafted furniture, jewelry, soap, and paper. Just about anything useful for your everyday life that is handmade in Arizona can be found at practical art!

practical art is also affordable destination for everyone: most of the items sell for less than $35. practical art is the perfect place to find a treasured gift. practical art has been named “Best of Phoenix” by the New Times and “Best in the Valley” by Phoenix Magazine.

The rooms have been paid for.

Thanks to Phoenix Innovation Foundation (PIF) for their help with that.

The agenda has been set.

Thanks to Mark Dudlik for making that pretty.

The sessions are ready to go.

Thanks to the session sponsors for that.

In addition to their donations, Rhonda Bannard of Inspired Connections and JoMarie MacDonald sent out information to their distribution lists (Rhonda sent it to 500 contacts alone). Nick Bastian wrote a great blog post on Raillife.com. CenPho.TV mentioned it in their weekly vlog. Downtown Phoenix Journal published a really fantastic story. Joan Koerber-Walker opened her network to us.

We thank you for that.

Jim McPherson and Steve Weiss from Downtown Voices Coalition invited Yuri to present to their monthly Steering Committee Meeting as well as the Visioning Conference. Jim also posted the event on the DVC website. Jeff Moriarty mentioned us at Social Media Club.

Thanks for that.

Izzy Video let us borrow one of his camcorders. Gangplank lent us two coolers.

Thanks to you both.

Also, thanks to Don Crossland and kontaktmag for getting me to care about downtown Phoenix in the first place.

Thanks to Katie Charland for editing the session descriptions.

Thanks to Dean Callahan for trusting us not to tear up his building.

A HUGE thanks to all the speakers and panelists. They are the shining stars of this event.

See you on Saturday!

Community events are never possible without the support of those they aim to serve. Thanks to the following four companies, we had our room sponsorships taken care of in less than a week. We and all the attendees are looking forward to seeing what they’re going to do with their rooms.

Big kudos to our four room sponsors. Without Tony’s Light Rail Blogger in room 252, Kimber’s Verve Co taking over room 202, Derek Neighbor’s Integrum slapping banners up in room 444 and Jane’s Practical Art decorating room 314, this event wouldn’t have been possible.

Look on the right sidebar. Yep, right where it says donate.

If you’re a sponsor or philanthropic citizen, that’s the best way to get your hard-earned cash to the Phoenix Innovation Foundation (PIF), who is working with us to handle the financial complexities of CenPhoCamp.

Your money, while not tax deductible, will pay the $500 fee Cronkite is charging us, while the rest will go to our after party. Sponsors, please email Tyler a copy of your receipt so we can record it.

If you’d like to pay by check or cash, please email tyler@tdhurst.com and he’ll be able to help you out.

Thanks in advance for your support!

Nothing happens for free. CenPhoCamp is no different.

To have use of all their equipment and internet access, the Cronkite School charges $500 for use of the facility. An affordable sum, but not one any of us can pay out of our own pocket.

That’s where local businesses come in. CenPhoCamp will be offering three levels of sponsorships: room, presenter and after party.

Room sponsorships will be $50 per room. Sponsors will be able to decorate as they wish, which may include banners, sales flyers or other such materials. Everything must be free standing. Room sponsors are guaranteed a presenter slot OR a chance to lead a panel session in the board room.¹ We estimate an average of 20 people per hour will see your materials, giving you 240 eyeballs on your product, as well as the gratitude of a faithful community.

Presenter sponsorships will be $20 per speaker.² Your company logo will be placed on their presentation materials and you may give a 30–60 second pitch before the presentation starts. If you’d like, we will help you write your pitch and can present it for you. The more popular presentations will likely be seen by 100 people, giving you 200 eyeballs and, again, the gratitude of a faithful community.

After party sponsorships are $10 and will go toward our bar/food bill at Turf.³ Your business will be thanked at the beginning of CenPhoCamp, at the end and again at Turf during the festivities. Nearly every attendee will know that you helped bring CenPhoCamp to fruition.

In addition, all room sponsors will receive their own blog post on CenPhoCamp.com, detailing what their business is about, what makes it unique and what it’s doing to promote the community.

All presentation sponsors will be mentioned in a blog post thanking contributors.

All after party sponsors will be listed in a blog post thanking supporters.

1. Depending on topic
2. Those that speak twice will be sponsored first
3. Again, tentative